In 2000, the United Nations opened a reading series called Dialogue Among Civilizations Through Poetry.

For its spotlight piece, the UN chose the poem “Planet Earth” by the renowned Canadian poet P.K. Page, to be simultaneously read at locations around the globe – including at the UN headquarters in New York, Mount Everest, the South Pacific, and Antarctica.

A biography of P.K. Page by Sandra Djwa (McGill-Queen’s University Press 2012).

“Planet Earth” was the one poem that Patricia Kathleen Page wanted to be remembered for.

Fittingly, the poem is a glosa, a form of poetry re-discovered and popularized by Page, and was inspired by four lines from the poem “In Praise of Ironing” by Pablo Neruda.

At once a tribute to Neruda, but with a thematic independence, “Planet Earth” sings.

Its full text can be found here.

Pablo Neruda at a recording session at the US Library of Congress

If you were here two nights ago on Open Link Night, and checked out the link to my Semaphore poetry blog, to my poem “The Dream”, you opened a window into a form of poetry that, for me, has proven amazingly liberating despite its structure.

If you missed it, here’s the poem again, a glosa inspired by four lines from P.K. Page’s “This Heavy Craft”; I’d completed it days after she’d passed away.

THE DREAM

where a bird
night after starry night
while I’m asleep
unfolds its phantom wings
— P.K. Page

is perhaps
a dream of you.
And the bird your
last unfinished verse
before you fell to earth.
And the night this world
without you, suddenly
overwhelmed with
loss, a song unheard,
where a bird

finds feathered rest.
And I am stirred
to whisper words
as would fly through
this glass air, as would
recall you, bright
as metal, incandescent
coal, rose-fragrant
words to take flight
night after starry night

when your absence
tests this faltering
hologram of faith.
No, not my words, but yours,
migrant across the pages,
flying across the deep
pleated blue of the ocean,
like arial shadows
in memory steeped.
While I’m asleep

your verses thread
into my dream,
as if they would embroider
with flowers and birds
this heart that only knows
that you are missing
still. Night after starry night
while I’m asleep
your poetry sings,
unfolds its phantom wings.

Wings

The glosa is a form of poetry from the late 14th century and was popular in the Spanish court.

The introduction, the cabeza, is a quatrain quoting a well-known poem or poet.

The second part is the glosa proper, expanding on the theme of the cabeza, consisting of four ten-line stanzas, with the lines of the cabeza used to conclude each stanza.

Lines six and nine must rhyme with the borrowed tenth.

There are no rules governing meter and line length, except that traditionally, they emulate the style of the lines in the cabeza.

Because of its structure, the glosa is ideally used as a poem of tribute – as Page did for Neruda in “Planet Earth”, and as I do for Page in “The Dream”.

In writing that tribute, you weave your lines with the lines of the opening cabeza, collaborating, as it were, with the spirit of the poet you honour.

Planet Earth, as seen from Apollo 17

I’d only ever known P.K. Page from her work, but when she passed away, it was like I’d lost someone I’d actually met.

My heart was torn and I wanted to say how much I missed her though I didn’t know her, how it was sad that after so much poetry no more words would be written…

But I also wanted to say that that the words that she had written – her influence, her inspiration – would live on, in my heart, my thoughts, and in my own poetry.

It was thus a great honour for me when “The Dream” was selected for publication by The Malahat Review as part of its permanent online tribute to P.K. Page.

P.K. Page on ‘The Malahat Review’

Tonight, I invite you to contribute your own glosa, a traditional form that lends itself so well to contemporary poetry.

Use it to pay tribute to one of your favourite poets, songwriters, mentors – via the cabeza and the intertwining of that writer’s words with your own.

I hope you’ll join me in writing and sharing tonight.

Thank you.

—–

Samuel Peralta – on Twitter as @Semaphore – is an award-winning Canadian poet, author of The Semaphore Collection – Sonata Vampirica, Sonnets from the Labrador, How More Beautiful You Are, Tango Desolado and War and Ablution – all Amazon Kindle top five best sellers in poetry.

His poems have appeared in Existere, The Malahat Review, Metazen, MiPoesias, Poets and Artists and other journals and anthologies. Literary honours include awards from the BBC, UK Poetry Society, a Palanca Award, and shortlists for the League of Canadian Poets, ARC Poem of the Year, and the Elgin Award.

Copyright (c) Samuel Peralta. All rights reserved.
Images public domain / via WikiMedia Commons or as attributed.

As a poet, I guess you’re supposed to think deep thoughts. I don’t, but I think the rule book calls for some depth every once in a while, at least on Capital L words like Life, Love and Luxurious (Blonde) Locks. So here’s my monthly quota: I say the opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s more likely apathy. Or maybe it’s ignorance, as in being ignored by the object of your loving feelings. That’s how the past few weeks have been for me and something I love…the writing for what passes as my heart and soul. And it’s a horrible feeling.

I’m Joe Hesch and I’m your barkeep and poem wrangler for today’s edition of dVerse Open Link Night.

Have you ever experienced what most call writer’s block? I can’t say that’s what I had. I think it was more a writer’s life block. You know, when real life gets in the way of your writing life. It casts a shadow beneath which not much can grow. Don’t get me wrong, shadows are where more than half of my poetry is grown.

But, as I said before, it’s the apathy, the ignoring, that is the painful part of my tenuous relationship with what I laughingly call “my gift.” (The fickle wench.)

I can’t just break through his type of creative malaise. I tried. Just as you can’t force someone to love you. You must trust. I trusted I would be able to create something again. (It didn’t matter what that might be by Week 3 of this particular funk.)

It was the gentle support of people I met here at dVerse and good old One Stop Poetry that nudged my creative imagination and me into a heart-to-heart on Friday last. And that’s such a good feeling, getting back in touch with your creative self (with no strings attached) and knowing you have found friends who know you and support your efforts (also with no strings attached).

It doesn’t necessarily make this easier, but definitely better.

That’s what can come of visiting here and our friends’ blogs on Tuesdays. Here’s how you can join us:

• Link in your OLN poem – one per blog, please – by clicking on the Mr. Linky button just below and cutting and pasting in your link.
• Don’t forget to let your poem’s readers know where you’re linking up and encourage them to participate by including a link to dVerse in your blog post.
• Visit as many other poems as you like, commenting as you see fit. This is where you get to express yourself about this poet’s work.
• Spread the word. Feel free to tweet and share on the social media of your choice.

photo credit: somegeekintn

Spring cleaning has finally made its way to my house and I spent the weekend with my family making piles of trash, piles of yard sale items, piles of donations and piles of books. I have a few books. Ok, ok, I have a book issue. I have too many books.

There, I can admit it.

I love to read. Have since I was a kid. One time, I thought I went blind. I had been reading for so long I strained my eyes and stumbled out of the house screaming for my mom—because I thought I was blind.

(Embarassing)

Last week, We talked a bit about inspiration and many of you gave some great thoughts on where you find inspiration and the muse. One of the places I am inspired is in the books I read. If I like the way a writer turns a particular phrase, I steal it.

(This is turning into confession.)

Seriously though, it is great to see how others do their art and you can pick up some great tips on writing to incorporate into your own style.

So, what are you reading?

(I think there is still a corner in the basement I can stack more books. Just kidding, I am not that bad.)

Let us know what you are reading, or maybe a favorite book or an author that you really like the way they write and why.

See you right back here tomorrow for OpenLinkNight—doors open at 3 pm EST.~Brian

..aww… well, some of you have already figured out that I was a bit sick this late having quite a hard time dealing with my SJS (Stevens-Johnson Syndrome) for the second time ‘round. SJS is a rare, serious disorder in which skin and mucous membranes react severely to a medication or infection causing the top layer of the skin to die and shed. There are no specific symptoms that can be associated to it but I got rashes & blisters on both legs and arms, and a few rashes on my back. And, nope – that is not the topic of our Poetics today, ok! …smiles…

Lately, while having a couple of treatments here and there I got myself busy reading books and taking pictures. I am currently an Instagram addict and I have one account there where I post all the photos I took which are mostly self-portrait and nature-inspired. Now, I know you all are wondering already about the title of our article today, ‘Asians are Ugly!’ – sounds discriminating and offensive right? Well, that was exactly the note I got when I posted a photo of me on my Instagram. Usually the quantity of likes I got from every post called my attention until this disgusting comment suddenly came out and made me feel a bit upset. He/she commented that ‘..asians are ugly!.. the ugliest in the world God ever made… and that we should all die and stop speaking English… coz we just mess up with it…’ I went over his/her page to check and got even more surprised to have seen that this guy/gal were also uploading and posting pictures of different young Asian girls and boys tagging them with nasty lines. I didn’t confront him/her although I got hurt and offended basically because I have an Asian blood, I live in Asia, I am from Philippines. I didn’t bother to send him/her any message simply because I am not the type of person who would waste his time confronting a ghost – yes, that person, whoever he/she is, was hiding under a false name and I could hardly trace any real identity of him/her so instead I blocked his/her account and reported it to the Instagram admin. I even encouraged my friends and followers to do the same thing for this ‘meany’ guy/gal in order to get him/her totally out of existence. Right now, the said account is already deleted since I can no longer search him/her but I know ‘haters are haters’ at the end of the day and this person will not stop and for sure he/she will find a way to create another dummy to spread his/her evil side. Last week, I got infos that another one or two of same deal is appearing again on the web but I didn’t bother to check anymore – ah, such a waste of time!

Just a thought, have you ever been discriminated? The issue of discrimination is no longer new to me and I feel so sorry for those who are lucky enough to have experienced such. But believe me it even hurts more when you are the one being discriminated already. Definitely my first time to experience such unschooled manner and it was both really shocking and funny that I even forgot I have SJS at the time… lol..

OK. Forgive me for bringing this issue up here at dVerse. I know I shouldn’t have to but I feel like I needed to share… just to release, ye know… I have initially planned to write and offer something formal article for today like what I did in my previous hosting but this topic about Asians keep on bugging me.

And so, because we are UGLY you will have to write a poem for us. Yes – our Poetics challenge for today is to write about your Asian experience/s. Have you been to any country in Asia? Have you met and able to talk to an Asian before? Do you have any experience of culture, food, tradition, people, and language in Asia? What do you know about Asians? What is your first perspective or impressions when you hear or see people coming from Asia? Do you think we are UGLY? lol… erase… erase… ok, just write anything about your own Asian experience be it current or happened a long time ago. Do you have issues about Asian people and the countries covered by Asia? Write it…. good or bad experiences we will all read… besides this is all about honesty. As I once said in a poem: “..in writing poetry you, first, have to think of honesty… and forget the beauty of frailty between you and me…” or if you think you don’t have any Asian experience yet you might want to consider this another option:

umaga   =   morning

gabi   =   evening

dapit hapon   =   sunset

bukang liwayway   =   dawn

dalagita   =   lady / young woman

binata   =   young man

saranggola / guryon / burador   =   kite

bata   =   child

binibini   =   miss

ginoo   =   mister

ilog / sapa / batis   =   river

hangin   =   wind / air

lupa   =   land / earth

ibon   =   bird

lawa   =   lake

puno / mga puno   =   tree / trees

dagat / karagatan   =   sea / ocean

lola   =   grandmother

lolo   =   grandfather

ina / inay / nanay   =   mother

ama / itay / tatay   =   father

kuya   =   older brother

ate   =   older sister

bunso   =   youngest sibling

bahay   =   house

ulap   =   clouds

langit / kalangitan   =   sky

araw   =   sun

damo / damuhan   =   grass / grassland

isda   =   fish

aso   =   dog

pusa   =   cat

tala / bituin   =   star

gubat / kagubatan   =   forest / forests

I have listed above some of the Tagalog (Philippines’ mother tongue) words with its closest translation in English for your reference. You can pick 3 to 5 or more from the list and use them in your poem or if you want more options go here and here for additional lists of some commonly used Tagalog phrases and words.

The following is my own example of mixed Tagalog – English language as used in poetry:

Two Poems: Dalagita

  I. The Mango Harvest

o mint green,
half-ripe mangoes
in baskets
of all sizes -

(and) blushing dalagitas i see
laughing ere a mango tree.

  II. Naughty Wind

then i saw her
crossed the street
a petite dalagita -

her long, night-coated hair
plays like guryon in the air.

Copyright © 2013, Kelvin S.M.. All Rights Reserved.

This ‘mix’ experimentation may sound awkward but it, always, depends on how you will use the inputs I have just provided earlier. My name is Kelvin and I am your ‘Asian’ host for today and to formally start this Asian revenge (lol) first, le’me tell ya how this will work:

• Write your poem (using the topic / prompt suggested) and post it to your blog
• Click on the Mr. Linky button below and enter your name and URL and click enter.
• This is also where you will find the list of those that have also joined in—visit others, read, comment, meet new people—let people know what you think of their verse.
• Feel free to share your link and a link to dVerse using the social media of your choice.
• …and lastly, of course, smiles…

Welcome poets, today we’ll delve into one of underpinnings in the art of poetry, specifically, the role of volition and velleity. Volition is the act of willing, choosing, or resolving. Velleity is a wish or inclination that is not strong enough to be acted upon. Is a poem an action or an expression of desire without action? How are volition and velleity illustrated within poetry? These questions arise at the philosophical base of the purpose of art; your response to them is part of what makes your work uniquely yours, part of what delineates your writer invariant.

Some tools that build a sense of volition or velleity in poetry include voice, diction, persona, style, tone, enjambment, artifice (or sincerity). How does voice indicate power dynamics or influence political potency? Are some voices marginalized within the cannon? What is the efficacy of poetry as a call to action? The illustrating poems that follow will give us a glimpse. They are only the beginning of the path that each poet defines in their own work, sometimes traversing both roads in order to more effectively create an impact.

In her poem Trials of the Written (extrait), Andrée Chedid elaborates these ideas:

Faced with this mat, level, often rebellious surface, how can one believe or hope that by dint of words, erasures, surges and relapses, a meaning, perhaps, will pierce through, reducing some darkness or other, unraveling some vague skein?

Embrace poetry in the broadest way; in the etymological sense of the word.

Then, it becomes an “act” it becomes a “work.” Poetry entering, its fists full, its gaze brimming, full-breathed, into life; to better seize it, to build differently.

She goes further, calls poets to, ‘Give a charge to words so that they may bind us to the mystery of life. Question language so that we may queried in turn by it. . . Words confront one another, contradictions are wedded, so that the combustions, the sinuosities, the aerial movements, buried deep within us, may emerge.’

I write to see . . .
by Heather Dohollau

I write to see what remains outside, coming
to rest against the window of the text. The
almost forgotten, attracted by a word, a color,
air. From a place I have turned away from
to look elsewhere. The eternal backcloth,
eternally before me.

The voice rises . . .
by Anne Teyssiéras

The voice rises merely to attain
an absence of color
Beneath the sooty archway
A drowned forest surges forth
Fingers let go
Blackness sweeps through foliage
The plung begins where the thrust leaves off

Finally I share the work of Jeannine Baude, who exquisitely captures the construction of meaning, the liminality of poetry, and the desire to enact:

I have sought so much . . .

I have sought so much
in the music of words
the unnameable
the furtive rustle
between a scorched beach
and the running water that holds
the face of the gods
in its over-ripe
palms

*All works were translated from the French by Michael Bishop

The pilgrimage of the poet, deeper into the meaning of their own work, of the role of poetry within their cultural context, is a long and potentially anfractuous journey. There may be times when your poetry is a reflection of your own state of being, a mere whisper of passion on the wind and others when it roars with the fire of action in the world. I am asking you to consider these questions and these concepts then you will write a poem that expresses one or the other, addresses the abstract ideas directly, or rewrites an existing poem illustrating volition or velleity and changes some aspect(s) to reflect the opposite.

To participate:

• Copy the direct link to the URL and paste it, along with your name, in the Mr. Linky at the bottom of this post.
• Engage in community building, a primary principle here at the pub, by investigating the work of others, reading and commenting. One of the best ways to become a better poet is to read and reflect on the work of your peers. Please provide positive, constructive feedback and appreciation. It’s how we show respect for one another at the pub.
• Share your work and that of others on your social networks. Encourage other poets to join us here at the pub.

I went to the English Garden and had a beer and sausages at the Chinese tower there, on my way back I met a guy from New York who just moved to Munich two weeks ago and we walked together to the city center cause the bus didn’t go and had a nice chat.

I rented a room in  a private flat (the hotels were booked because of a soccer game) and discovered that my host’s mother  made an art calendar  once for the company I’m working for.

And I saw the players of the FC Bayern München live on their way to the Marienplatz for the big champion’s celebration.

So what does this have to do with OpenLinkNight?

For me, it’s the connections along the way that make life so rich and colorful, the little moments, the under the door frame conversations, small gestures, a smile, an encouraging word. We meet somewhere on the way and it gives a sense of community and belonging and brings little dots of colors into our lives.

Happy OLN everyone – my name is Claudia and I’m happy to be your host tonight.

If you’re here for the first time, this is how it works…

• Write a poem (no specific theme) and post it to your blog
• Copy the direct URL of the poem (not the blog URL) into the Mr. Linky.
• Insert your name (not the poem’s name) into the Mr. Linky so that people get to know you
• Visit others and leave them a comment. Tell them how you felt when reading their poem. Be specific
• If you like a poem, share it on your preferred social media platform like twitter or FB
• Join the conversation in the comments section—it’s fun and a wonderful opportunity to connect

“do you think they ever stop and talk?”

helicopter seeds gather  under the tree & we collect handfuls, take them to the back deck of my aunt’s house and spin them in the breeze howling down off the mountain. they spin, spin…some up up, some down—there is no rhyme or reason to the direction.

two kids down the road throw a half full water bottle in the air, sun twinkling on the liquid mirror interior, then swing baseball bats knocking it high, a shower erupting from the small mouth.

“you ready to go back in?”
“not yet.”

I understand, its hard seeing my grandmother, his great, in this shape, so we sit on the metal porch chairs, bounce gently on springs & watch the world move.

~~~~~

Yesterday was Mother’s Day. We went to my hometown and saw my mom and grandmother. Three generations of mothers in one place. It was pretty cool. Hopefully you honored the mothers in your life-no matter the relationship. it’s important.

I want to talk a bit about inspiration. Let me warn you I am about to be blasphemous.

I don’t believe in Writer’s Block.

Which means I don’t believe my writing is dependent on a Muse for inspiration.

(Gasp!)

I think there are times I don’t feel like writing and the Muse is a convenient excuse. I think there are times I don’t feel particularly inspired and the Muse becomes a convenient excuse.

Writing is a discipline, like exercise…and there are days you don’t want to, but then you do…and it feels good. Writing is like that…on days you don’t want to. You may not write anything mind blowing, but you may, when you go back and edit, take one really good phrase. The discipline though, it honors the Muse and is often rewarded, even if it is just an idea that comes in the writing.

There is probably someone out there right now still trying to figure out what they will write about for tomorrow—so let’s help them out—what inspires you? Is it external? Internal? Be specific. Have fun with this.

See you back here tomorrow…OLN…opens at 3 pm EST.

Peace.
~Brian

Good afternoon, poets and friends.   Mary here tending the bar today.  I had to resist the temptation to go to a movie today rather than spending time here in the bar & also the temptation to visit my favorite ice cream stand and indulge in a large butter pecan ice cream cone.  Sometimes when my alarm clock rings in the morning I am tempted to turn it off and go back to sleep.  Many things tempt me on any given day.  Sometimes I indulge and sometimes I don’t.  How about you?

Today I would like you to write about ‘temptation’ in some way.  Yours or someone else’s.  Factual (perhaps historical) or fictional.  Think back to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and perhaps do a poetic retelling or revision.   How do you deal with temptation?  What temptation do you have a hard time resisting?  When don’t you?  Or why?  Who is your fantasy tempter/temptress?  Is temptation always something negative?  Have you ever been the one who does the tempting? Etc. Etc.

Perhaps one of the following quotes will inspire you or at least make you smile!

“Yield to temptation.  It may not pass your way again.” — Robert Heinlein

“I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.”  — Mae West

“There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice.”  — Mark Twain

“Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.”  –  George Bernard Shaw

“For every man there exists a bait which he can’t resist swallowing.”   — Friedrich Nietzsche

“Opportunity may knock once, but temptation leans on the doorbell.” – Anonymous

What to do next:

• Post your poem to your blog

• Add a link to your poem via the ‘Mr Linky’ below

• This opens a new screen where you’ll enter your information, and where you also choose links to read. Once you have pasted your poem’s blog URL and entered your name, click Submit.

• Read and comment on other peoples work to let them know it’s being read

• Share via your favorite social media platforms

• Above all- have fun!

Terza Rima

Dante Alighieri

It is believed that Terza Rima – Italian for three rhyme – was invented by Dante Alighieri, who used this pattern of rhyme throughout his Divine Comedy (ca 1300) and, lacking any evidence to the contrary, I will not argue with this. It is commonly held that the form was brought into the English language by Geoffrey Chaucer. Since then, many poets have written English language Terza Rima, from Milton and Shelley to W.H. Auden and William Carlos Williams.

However, the rhyme scheme of Terza Rima has not been universally popular with English language poets. Consideration of Terza Rima’s requirements will give us some indication as to why this might be.

Terza Rima is rhyming poetry written in tercets – that is three-line stanzas. So far, so straightforward, except that in Terza Rima:

• The first and third lines of each tercet rhyme.
• It is usual to write English Terza Rima in iambic pentameter.
• The first and third lines of each subsequent stanza rhyme with the second line from the stanza before, so the rhyme scheme is aba bcb cdc and so on.
• You need at least three stanzas to produce the musical effect of the chain-rhyming.

Now, is that clear? No?? Perhaps an example will help. Here’s an excerpt from the beginning of Byron’s The Prophecy of Dante:

Lord Byron

Canto I
Once more in man’s frail world! which I had left             a
So long that ’twas forgotten; and I feel                       b
The weight of clay again,—too soon bereft                  a
Of the immortal vision which could heal                        b
My earthly sorrows, and to God’s own skies                  c
Lift me from that deep gulf without repeal,                   b
Where late my ears rung with the damned cries            c
Of souls in hopeless bale; and from that place              d
Of lesser torment, whence men may arise                    c
Pure from the fire to join the angelic race;                   d

etc, for about 32 pages in this digitized version. Now, at a rate of one page per hour, you should all be able to produce something similar before the Linky expires … smiles.

Seriously, if you are going to write an extended Terza Rima poem, then sooner or later you are going to run out of rhyming words. Modern poets have, and do, use slant- or near-rhymes to get around this issue, but even at that, there are still aren’t too many words which rhyme, even loosely, with purple!

If you do choose to try a Terza Rima epic poem – and don’t let me put you off – then, according to tradition, you need to end your poem with a single line that rhymes with the middle line of your final full tercet, giving you a closing rhyme scheme of yzy z, which is often closed up to form a quatrain.

For the rest of us, let me turn your attention to something just a little less ambitious. At the risk of trespassing on Sonnetmeister Samuel Peralta‘s turf … smiles … let me introduce the star of today’s article …

The Terza Rima Sonnet.

We all know what a sonnet is, don’t we; fourteen lines, normally of iambic pentameter, to one of several available rhyme schemes. Rather than waffle on endlessly about what a Terza Rima sonnet is, let me show you one instead. This one was written by Robert Frost and published in 1923:

Acquainted with the Night
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain — and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

Robert Frost

You can see the rhyme scheme clearly: aba bcb cdc ded ee. Frost has been extra-clever in this poem. His e-rhyme is the same as his a-rhyme, thus allowing him to close his sonnet by repeating his first line – a neat, but not essential touch that completes the isolating circle of his poem, which is about solitude.

Other Terza Rima sonnets include the five which comprise Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind, and this one by UK Poet Laureate, Carol Anne Duffy, who is one of my favourite poets:

Carol Ann Duffy
(image from http://www.carolannduffy.co.uk/)

Terza Rima SW19
Over this Common a kestrel treads air
till the earth says mouse or vole. Far below
two lovers walking by the pond seem unaware.

She feeds the ducks. He wants her, tells her so
as she half-smiles and stands slightly apart.
He loves me, loves me not with each deft throw.

It could last a year, she thinks, possibly two
and then crumble like stale bread. The kestrel flies
across the sun as he swears his love is true

and, darling, forever. Suddenly the earth cries
Now and death drops from above like a stone.
A couple turn and see a strange bird rise.

Into the sky the kestrel climbs alone
and later she might write or he might phone.

© Carol Ann Duffy

As you were reading this, did you notice how Carol Ann Duffy has played with the Terza Rima scheme slightly to reinforce the point of her poem? There’s an end word that doesn’t rhyme with any of the others. Go on, read it again and you’ll see what I mean.

This week’s Form for All challenge
is to try your hand at Terza Rima. I don’t anticipate anyone will produce a Byronic epic, although I am prepared to be proved wrong, but perhaps you might write a Terza Rima sonnet. So what do you do now? Here’s

How It Works:
• Write your poem and post it to your blog
• Add a link to your poem via the ‘Mr Linky’ below.
• This opens a new screen where you’ll enter your information, and where you also choose links to read. Once you have pasted your poem’s blog URL and entered your name, click Submit. Don’t worry if you don’t see your name right away.
• Read and comment on other people’s work to let them know it’s being read. This is quite a tough challenge so it would be good if you could encourage everyone who rises to it.
• Share your work and that of your fellow poets via your favourite social media platforms.
• Above all – have fun!

So what has happened in the past 6 weeks? Back then I was telling you all about the opportunity that has come my way to begin a creative writing class at the Grassmarket Community Project in Edinburgh. Since then I have had the privilege of attending the official opening of the Project’s new facilities, which are astounding, and on Friday just past we had the first meeting of the creative writing group. Four people came along to that meeting, which was nice for the first one; not enough to be overwhelming, but not so few as to be discouraging. After we had introduced ourselves, we discussed how, as writers, we might demonstrate the Project’s core value of respect; respect for each other and respect for ourselves. Some of the ways that we agreed would contribute to that included both sharing our work with each other and paying attention to what others are sharing, and writing to the given prompts. For anyone interested, the prompt I gave was Behind the Red Door and in response to it I wrote my first piece of prose fiction in 30 years or so.

What does that have to do with dVerse? Well, it was being part of this community that gave me the confidence to believe that I might be the answer to the Project’s need of someone to lead their creative writing group. It was here at dVerse that I found a community of poets who read each other’s work, encouraged each other by commenting on what was good about what we had read and sometimes made suggestions about how the work might be improved. It was here at dVerse that I was able to see other writers providing prompts to stretch my own writing, and here that I had my first opportunity to give a prompt for other poets to respond to. So I have a lot of reasons to be thankful to Brian, Claudia and the rest of this wonderful, welcoming, international community of poets.

My name is Tony Maude, and it is my privilege to welcome you to this week’s edition of the poetic extravaganza that is the dVerse pub’s Open Link Night.

If you are new here, let me tell you how it works; for the regulars, here’s a handy reminder:

• Write a poem and post it to your webpage.
• Click on the Mr. Linky button below and enter your name and direct url/web address to your poem; one poem per person please.
• There you will also find the list of those participating this week. You might want to refresh this occasionally or check back in as there are people joining over the next 33 hours.
• If it’s your first time here, please leave a comment to say so. That makes it much easier for us to find you and encourage you by visiting your site.
• Read other poets that have linked. Let them know what you thought, how the poem moved you, what caught your attention etc. The not-so-secret formula to receiving more visits and comments on your blog is to read and comment on other people’s poems. Please don’t forget to return the favour of those who have visited and commented on your work.
• Encourage others to participate through social media, promote both your own work and others.
• Have fun meeting and engaging with your fellow poets.

Happy Tuesday everyone … smiles